OH Stephenie Meyer we just love you. Y'all thought we forgot all about our SM blog posts didn't you!?! Well we are back with part 2 (here's part 1)of the Bree Tanner conversations with Mrs. Meyer.

Didn't get how or when Riley was made? Like ummm Stephenie we need more answers, a diagram, and charts to when Riley was bitten.....LISTEN:TwiFans.com talks Newborn army time line with Stephenie Meyer by twifans Transcript – 10 - Newborn Time line
TST: We want to know the time line from when Diego, Riley, and Fred were created as
vampires.

SM: Riley ...um... showed up in Eclipse. He was one of those characters that starts out
as a tool without having much person to him, but then as you write about him—and it
was hard not being able to see that much of him. That final scene with him and Edward,
I felt much more pity for him than I did when I was writing Bree, because here you have
this guy who comes into it, and he's been lied to and manipulated more than anyone else.
The newborns have been manipulated. But not the way he's been. He's been lied to more than anyone. And Victoria is his whole life. And to have her dismiss him the way that she does. Ya know…and he has that moment where he could survive. If he listened to Edward. And when Edward says "I don't want to kill you, you can walk away from this," he makes the wrong choice. Which is hard. So he....has always been.....Bree was just an example of a newborn when I was
working with her in Eclipse. Then when I started working with [inaudible]… Actually,
First it was Rebecca…Rebecca was saying "what was going on?" I had to re-tailor the
story to have more clues about what’s happening, and she really wanted to know, you
know, "tell me what happens in Seattle." So then I was looking at it, and that's when you
start getting the stories. Once the stories start.....you have to write them down. So Diego
formed really quickly. Originally, the opening scene started out with the Spiderman
theme song. Because it was just them, ya know, him skittering on the walls and this crazy
bizarre thing. And then, I knew she needed someone to talk to, and she needed somebody
sane, so Diego showed up really quickly as somebody who is outside of the newborn
madness already. And is already past that. Fred was a little bit later. I was thinking, Here
you have this little girl, who has been thrown into this setup—how does she survive?
She wasn't talented, but I figured if there was somebody else who was, then it all kind of

came together really easily and organically.

TST: Was Riley created while James was still alive?

SM: No. Very quickly after his death, though.

TST: Because of their being so mature. It’s just kind of curious about how that fit in here.

SM: Victoria, you know, you never see it from her perspective. Some of the things about
her character is she is so non-combative. She doesn't take people on face to face because
she's a survivor—

TS: Evasive.

SM: Yeah. She’s the behind-the-scene manipulator. She doesn't...James was always the
front guy. She let him lead the way. She let him....And she was crazy about James, but
she let him take the danger for her. ‘Cause that's who she is. So, she felt very alone. She's
lost this guy. Laurent’s run off and kind of gone off with the enemy, as far as she knows,
and she picked Riley. He was big and strong, and she felt like "I need someone to stand
in between me and everyone else". And then she starts coming up with ways to use him. So he was really early in.

Stephenie, please tell us all about Fred. Is he gross? Does he smell? What gives....are you drinking "magic" water in Arizona that takes you off into a different state of mind? How did you come up with vamp powers?

TS: Stench…repulsion...yeah. How do you come up with the powers, for vampires?

?: What is in the water? (laughs) I wanna know! We were talking about this a lot!

Guy: We should be bottling this water.

SM: Well, anytime you start dealing with fantasy…It slowly sort of strips away all therules. Do you guys read Jasper Fforde? Does anyone here read Jasper Fforde? Oh my gosh. I’m reading “Shades of Grey” right now, which is maybe not his [??], maybe a little more. His imagination is unreal. And you look at that and say "wow." I think when you start taking awaythe boundaries, you think of things. Now, Fred’s actually not too far off. He’s really related to what Jasper can do. He has an ability to affect how your body feels. And his isvery specific. It's kind of like the difference between Jane and Kate. He had one thing hecan do, whereas Jasper has the whole range.

TS: I never thought of it that way.

SM: um..... And so it’s related to that same kind of, THAT classification of power.

TST: Okay, so that feeds into this question perfectly. What is it about his humancharacteristic, or his trait, that leads him into or caused him to have that ability when he's a vampire? I mean because obviously it’s something that was when he washuman that kind of has been magnified—

SM: I see Fred's back-story as kind of....he's older.....he's in college, so he's a little bitolder than some of the kids, like Riley. I see him as being, I mean he's beautiful now,because that's what happens', but I see him as being quiet and NOT liking other people'sattention. So of course, when you end up in a room full of newborns, that’s gonna bean even stronger need. So with him, sort of having that....uh...need to not be seen…manifested in that way. So that … and of course makes him....really kind of cool.

TST: Well, it’s weird because he's got this ability to make people feel SOrepelled that they're nauseated. That's kind of where I think the smell thing came from.

SM: I think so, although for me, it was like completely…a feeling in your gut. It wasn’tlike, it was visceral…and really, really potent becausehe’s And...uh...he figured it out…You have to learn fast when you're in a group likethat. So he's kind of in an accelerated learning program. And he gets good pretty quickly.And he's really, really smart. Which is why I...I like to think about the newborns and whatit would be like to be so...unable to focus. Just all the time, all you can think about is thisdriving need that you have, and you're barely human, and.....but if you can stop and slowdown, then you're able to think, and you're really bright, actually. He's able to do that onhis own, which makes him unique and special.

Transcript – 10 - DiegoLTT: We really want to know…Where did the name Diego come from? Was it an oldboyfriend, gardener?

SM: No, I don’t tend to name them after boyfriends. It seems like everyone has acharacter named Dave. I deal with so many Dave's. I’msurprised I didn’t end up married to a ‘Dave’! So I avoided that. With Diego, I wanted aspecific character…I had a real vision of him in what he looked like, what his ethnicitywas. And I love the name Diego. It’s sexy! So there was that. Fred, it was all aboutthe alliteration. I wanted to have some kind of a nickname for him. And so, you know,“freaky Fred.” It worked really well that way. Then there was a bit of Scooby-Dooin that! Because you know Freddy (the Scooby-Doo character) was tall with broadshoulders. Kinda goofy and everything. So there was this....he’s not…the character isn’tlike that. But the outer—the blonde, the broad shoulders, everything…yeah, you know…

(General chit chat)

Need more than we gave you today?Many more blogs from our Stephenie Meyer adventure coming soon. In the meantime don't miss our other Stephenie Meyer interview blogs:

WARNING: All photographs are owned byStephenie Meyerand there may be no copying or other exploitation of such photographs without the express prior written permission of Stephenie Meyer, c/o Jodi Reamer ,jreamer@writershouse.com